JEM Courses

Course categories:

Health literacy is not a "thing." The term stands for our ability to communicate effectively and engage those we support in making health decisions or changes. This category includes learning activities related to improving understandability, engagement, and person-centered communication.

Visual strategies are the least invasive support we can provide an individual, regardless of ability. Everyone uses visual tools. They're everywhere! The walk signal, a stop sign, the restroom symbol, a calendar, the icons on a smart phone, color coding tags to outfits ...these are all visual tools!

This course helps demystify how to create effective visual tools to support someone you are working with. The focus is on individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, but the concepts apply to everyone - even you!

Do any of these look familiar to you? What’s the common theme? Advocacy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have been advocating for understandable information for decades. Ironically, this group is typically left out of the equation as we focus on things such as health disparities, health literacy, and even sustainable communities.

However, the supports used to create quality lives for people with IDD provide insights to the techniques used in health literacy. Blending the literature and practice of universal design for learning, special education, and health literacy creates a powerful toolbox for the health care professional.

If we are more alike than different, do the differences matter? How can you include people with IDD in your health literacy programs? You will be surprised by how much you already know – and the tools you use that are standard tools for those working in the disability field.

In this session, I invite you to join me on a journey. A journey of learning about the lives of people who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their quest for a quality life and quality health, with a community vision.

Filled with applications from literature, stories from the field, and examples of practical tools, you will experience the power of the lessons learned about understandability for people with IDD. Find out what’s important to them – which is now the starting point, not the destination. We are more alike than different.

You will leave with tools for your toolbox that are useful for everyone – regardless of label – including a checklist for creating understandable materials for people with IDD. You will be ready to open the door to your services to people with IDD.